For roughly the past month, I have been counting down the days until July 23. No, I wasn't planning an awesome spring vacation to North Carolina, and no I'm not headed to college early, I am just counting down the days until 2008 Allen & Ginter is released.
Phew, no laughs, thank god this is a baseball card blog.
Since Andy and I work minimum wage jobs and have to fund ourselves through college, neither of us can afford to buy any high end product (although I bought a box of SPX anyways). So, we both look for sets that offer an awesome looking product, great inserts, a set that isn't paralleled out its ass, and awesome random shit. Therefore, Allen & Ginter wins the title of the best set ever. Each year the set looks identical to the previous year, with the player photo looking as though it was hand drawn on a cream colored, standard looking card. The set has numerous mini sets (literally), including the 50 card subset with a player representing each state (Tim Stauffer must be thrilled to have a baseball card again), and a 50 card subset of famous world leaders (awesome). Oh, you can pull your standard jersey or bat card, but you can also pull awesome shit such as a Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini boxing glove card, among others. Basically, Allen & Ginter has everything I want in a set.
So, when July 23 came it took me less then a day to get to our card store and crack me some cases. The guy who owns the place is awesome, and isn't your typical dealer who will crack boxes until he has the case hit, then sell the excess to his customers. He cracked a new case infront of us, and I slowly pulled the three boxes I wanted.
The first case was my best, I pulled Victor Martinez and Tim Hudson jersey cards, a Paul LoDuca bat card, the Battle of Gettysburg crack the code card, numerous hilarious cards like Harriet Tubman and Marie Curie, and a Francisco Cordero mini autograph redemption card.
The second case had my biggest pull, a Lisa Leslie autograph, which I was initially pissed about since I thought it would be worth nothing. I also got another set of Tim Hudson and Victor Martinez jersey cards (!!!yay!!!), and a Don Larsen crack the code card.
The third and final case was my worst, I only pulled a Rafael Furcal and Albert Pujols jersey and bat cards, but I did get a Bill Mazeroski crack the code and a Rich Hill 10/25 bazooka back card.
Overall, my three cases rocked. I came up only 37 cards short of base set, 5 State cards short of the state set, and got two cards (Leslie & Hill) which I pulled zero of last year. So, I was satisfied with my 270 dollars being well spent, and was planning on keeping everything I got. However, when I check ebay and saw that a Leslie auto was selling for 59.99, I put her bitch as in a case an put it up on ebay. If anyone reads this blog (doubtful), here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300245567460. I'm hoping to just get 50 for her, which will be half of a future box which I will likely get, and hopefully pull an awesome rip card in and keep the cycle going. I don't know, I'll be updating later with results.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Goodbye Casey Blake
I didn't find out about the Xavier Nady deal until 12pm today. I don't think the Bucs got the better end of the stick, but at least Tabata has some hype around him. Hopefully Huntington knows what he's getting himself into, I'd hate for him to be stuck with an Andy Marte type player.
As for the Tribe, it really has been a rough rough year. While I'm more of a narcissist when it comes to anything Cleveland sports, I was actually optimistic about this season. Bad idea.
Since falling flat on our faces in April, May didn't get better. June sucked. And then comes the best part of the year, July. In July we've had our two bright spots Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee honored in the All-Star game. Our brightest spot for the last 7 years, CC Sabathia was dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers for promising OF prospect Matt Laporta and some other scrubs who will probably break into AAA but not much higher than that.
With talk about others being dealt, Casey Blake found himself on the chopping block today, and was dealt right quick to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I was never a huge fan of Blake, but I truly respected the way he carried himself. Soft spoken and a true team player. I remember when we signed Aaron Boone and Blake without a qualm changed his position to the corner OF. And he turned into a very productive outfielder with his rocket of an arm.
What we got in return is Single A catcher Carlos Santana (awesome name) and reliever turned starter Jonathan Meloan.
I'm actually pretty excited about this deal. Not only are we in desperation for catchers in our system (wish we still had Max Ramirez), but unlike the few we have in the minors, Santana is pretty promising. He started his career off as an OF but quickly was made into a catcher. Apparently (according to rotoworld) he is still green behind the plate, but his numbers on offense seem to make up for this (.323/.431/.563). He's currently 22 right now and will most likely report to either Kinston or Akron. If he goes to Akron I'll really need to attend a game seeing as how we have Hodges, Newsom, and Laporta down there. Plus it's a 20 minute drive for me.
When I heard Meloan's name I recognized it but couldn't remember why. My first Topps 2008 Mini-Box contained his autographed card (along with the hype of Redemption number 2!). Prior to this year Meloan was considered a top reliever prospect, but the Dodgers decided to try and turn him into a starter. With some mediocre results put up this season, I wouldn't be surprised to see us continue to utilize him as a stater, and if it is deemed a failure (read: most likely will fail), we should send him back to his normal position as a reliever. I am expecting Meloan to be sent to Buffalo.
As much as I'm going to miss Casey Blake, I'm not going to deny that I think now was the best time to deal him.
As for the Tribe, it really has been a rough rough year. While I'm more of a narcissist when it comes to anything Cleveland sports, I was actually optimistic about this season. Bad idea.
Since falling flat on our faces in April, May didn't get better. June sucked. And then comes the best part of the year, July. In July we've had our two bright spots Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee honored in the All-Star game. Our brightest spot for the last 7 years, CC Sabathia was dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers for promising OF prospect Matt Laporta and some other scrubs who will probably break into AAA but not much higher than that.
With talk about others being dealt, Casey Blake found himself on the chopping block today, and was dealt right quick to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I was never a huge fan of Blake, but I truly respected the way he carried himself. Soft spoken and a true team player. I remember when we signed Aaron Boone and Blake without a qualm changed his position to the corner OF. And he turned into a very productive outfielder with his rocket of an arm.
What we got in return is Single A catcher Carlos Santana (awesome name) and reliever turned starter Jonathan Meloan.
I'm actually pretty excited about this deal. Not only are we in desperation for catchers in our system (wish we still had Max Ramirez), but unlike the few we have in the minors, Santana is pretty promising. He started his career off as an OF but quickly was made into a catcher. Apparently (according to rotoworld) he is still green behind the plate, but his numbers on offense seem to make up for this (.323/.431/.563). He's currently 22 right now and will most likely report to either Kinston or Akron. If he goes to Akron I'll really need to attend a game seeing as how we have Hodges, Newsom, and Laporta down there. Plus it's a 20 minute drive for me.
When I heard Meloan's name I recognized it but couldn't remember why. My first Topps 2008 Mini-Box contained his autographed card (along with the hype of Redemption number 2!). Prior to this year Meloan was considered a top reliever prospect, but the Dodgers decided to try and turn him into a starter. With some mediocre results put up this season, I wouldn't be surprised to see us continue to utilize him as a stater, and if it is deemed a failure (read: most likely will fail), we should send him back to his normal position as a reliever. I am expecting Meloan to be sent to Buffalo.
As much as I'm going to miss Casey Blake, I'm not going to deny that I think now was the best time to deal him.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Sharks!
I spent my money on a box of Allen and Ginter two days ago. I still have not sorted it, I've just been too lazy. The other guy in this blog (maybe?) Jim, bought 3 boxes. I can't even begin to think what his biggest pull was.
My biggest pull was probably the Pujols jersey, but my favorite's of the box were the Dmitri Young bat card along with both Sizemore's I pulled (Flag and regular base).
In total, I pulled 5 relic cards.
-Dmitri Young Bat Card
-Jeff Francoeur Jersey Card (Home White)
-Albert Pujols Jersey Card (Grey Away)
-Paul LoDuca Bat Card
-Manny Ramirez Jersey Card (Home White)
For such a huge over hyped set, I am surprised at some of the inserts. Paul Loduca, really? I thought this guy was out of baseball.
Not really sure if I'll pick up another box again as I'll probably start buying hockey within the next few weeks. Most likely my buying will continue on Ebay for Sizemore cards (there's a few on there right now I'm looking at buying).
Also, a really cool note, the card shop Jim and I frequent the guy offered us $100 to come in and sort some of his cards. I'm not sure if he's serious, but how hard could it be to sort cards and laugh at all the names we scour through?
My biggest pull was probably the Pujols jersey, but my favorite's of the box were the Dmitri Young bat card along with both Sizemore's I pulled (Flag and regular base).
In total, I pulled 5 relic cards.
-Dmitri Young Bat Card
-Jeff Francoeur Jersey Card (Home White)
-Albert Pujols Jersey Card (Grey Away)
-Paul LoDuca Bat Card
-Manny Ramirez Jersey Card (Home White)
For such a huge over hyped set, I am surprised at some of the inserts. Paul Loduca, really? I thought this guy was out of baseball.
Not really sure if I'll pick up another box again as I'll probably start buying hockey within the next few weeks. Most likely my buying will continue on Ebay for Sizemore cards (there's a few on there right now I'm looking at buying).
Also, a really cool note, the card shop Jim and I frequent the guy offered us $100 to come in and sort some of his cards. I'm not sure if he's serious, but how hard could it be to sort cards and laugh at all the names we scour through?
SPX
I am stupid.
I bought a box of 2008 Upper Deck SPX
Here is what I now own:
Triple Patch Jim Thome 08/15 (Phillies)
Triple Patch Derek Lee 07/25
Triple Patch Dan Haren 17/75 (Athletics)
Triple Patch Francisco Liriano 78/99
Triple Patch Jason Varitek 074/125
Triple Patch Jermaine Dye 078/125
American Hero Ken Griffey Jr 371/725
Young Star Signatures Nick Markakis
Rookie Signatures Justin Ruggiano
Rookie Signatures Josh Anderson
Rookie Signatures Chris Seddon
Rookie Signatures Rob Johnson
979 Yankee Stadium Legends Lou Gehrig
BASE SET
4 Dan Haren
11 David Ortiz
16 Derek Lee
23 Ken Griffey Jr
28 C.C. Sabathia
35 Justin Verlander
47 Jared Weaver
52 Brad Penny
56 Justin Morneau
59 Delmon Young
71 Cole Hamels
76 Freddy Sanchez
80 Barry Zito
83 Ichiro
95 Hank Blalock
100 Dmitri Young
Sure, the common set has really nice looking cards, but shouldn't a set that costs $175 per box have that? As Andy mentioned (and I ignored) when I bought it, this set is so stupidly paralleled. Being a giant light-weight when it comes to collecting cards, I honestly didn't full understand what this meant when he said it, and also being an impulse buyer, I figured I had some cash to blow so why not try and pull some Jay Bruce 1/1 or something. Whoops!
Well, the common set is solid, let's check out the inserts. We start first with the autographs. Talk about a great pull! Josh Anderson! Chris Seddon! Justin Riggiano! Rob Johnson! Honestly, I expected to get these black holes in a Topps Chrome box, not a set that actually is supposed to be worth something. I know I got Nick Markakis, and he actually will make a Major League roster in three years, but he isn't anything super special. For a set that is supposed to be as good as this, Nick Markakis isn't supposed to be my prized autograph. This blows.
Let's take a look at the jersey cards, surely I got a nice pull. Wrong. I got a Derek Lee serial to 25, which is nice but nothing over the top. The Jim Thome I have serial to 15 is really thick and has alot of jersey, which is nice. Wait, hasn't Jim Thome been on the White Sox the past few years? I guess SPX didn't get that memo so I have a 2008 Jim Thome Philadelphia Phillies GU card. God, fuck this set so much.
I bought a box of 2008 Upper Deck SPX
Here is what I now own:
Triple Patch Jim Thome 08/15 (Phillies)
Triple Patch Derek Lee 07/25
Triple Patch Dan Haren 17/75 (Athletics)
Triple Patch Francisco Liriano 78/99
Triple Patch Jason Varitek 074/125
Triple Patch Jermaine Dye 078/125
American Hero Ken Griffey Jr 371/725
Young Star Signatures Nick Markakis
Rookie Signatures Justin Ruggiano
Rookie Signatures Josh Anderson
Rookie Signatures Chris Seddon
Rookie Signatures Rob Johnson
979 Yankee Stadium Legends Lou Gehrig
BASE SET
4 Dan Haren
11 David Ortiz
16 Derek Lee
23 Ken Griffey Jr
28 C.C. Sabathia
35 Justin Verlander
47 Jared Weaver
52 Brad Penny
56 Justin Morneau
59 Delmon Young
71 Cole Hamels
76 Freddy Sanchez
80 Barry Zito
83 Ichiro
95 Hank Blalock
100 Dmitri Young
Sure, the common set has really nice looking cards, but shouldn't a set that costs $175 per box have that? As Andy mentioned (and I ignored) when I bought it, this set is so stupidly paralleled. Being a giant light-weight when it comes to collecting cards, I honestly didn't full understand what this meant when he said it, and also being an impulse buyer, I figured I had some cash to blow so why not try and pull some Jay Bruce 1/1 or something. Whoops!
Well, the common set is solid, let's check out the inserts. We start first with the autographs. Talk about a great pull! Josh Anderson! Chris Seddon! Justin Riggiano! Rob Johnson! Honestly, I expected to get these black holes in a Topps Chrome box, not a set that actually is supposed to be worth something. I know I got Nick Markakis, and he actually will make a Major League roster in three years, but he isn't anything super special. For a set that is supposed to be as good as this, Nick Markakis isn't supposed to be my prized autograph. This blows.
Let's take a look at the jersey cards, surely I got a nice pull. Wrong. I got a Derek Lee serial to 25, which is nice but nothing over the top. The Jim Thome I have serial to 15 is really thick and has alot of jersey, which is nice. Wait, hasn't Jim Thome been on the White Sox the past few years? I guess SPX didn't get that memo so I have a 2008 Jim Thome Philadelphia Phillies GU card. God, fuck this set so much.
Monday, July 14, 2008
New Low in Card Collecting
This is my first post in nearly a month. I'm quickly losing interest in sports cards. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I don't really have much money to splurge on cards, maybe it's because there aren't that many sets out right now that interest me, actually the main reason I'm losing interest in sports cards are PARALLELS!
These things suck. My favorite baseball player is Grady Sizemore. I like to think I have a pretty good card collection of him. Plenty of commons, some rare cards, some auto's and a lot of game used stuff. However, every time I head over to Ebay to see what I might want to buy, I get disgusted when I see 10 different listings on the first page of "GAME USED SWATCH UD SPECTRUM, PURPLE RAINBOW STORM REFRACTOR /75". That card is selling for 5 bucks. Cool, I'll pick that up. But wait, I'm not done yet as I've still have to purchase the /10, /55, /35, /105, and the ever so rare /555.
Seriously Topps and UD, stop doing this shit. I know quite a few blogs out there that I frequent (most notably Sportscards Uncensored) talks about this daily and I love reading about it.
However, when browsing today, I have seen it all. The 2008 UD Grady Sizemore Jersey out of their base set is not serial numbered which makes it not as rare. So how would the seller make this card seem enticing?
Yep, just plop a pair of pushed up tits with the card in the middle of the two. Genius. Whatever dude buys that card will be in heaven. Probably gloat to his buddies "d00d i just won a jerzey card of an all-star for 10 bucks and it was on some tits!"
Personally, I think this option of selling your cards is real tacky. Not to mention it screams white trash when you consider that in the lower left corner the woman's hand is pushing up her boob so the stupid card is "centered".
By the way, if you guys care enough to look at some of their other SUPER BOOB auctions, the persons name is sweet daisy20.
Have fun.
These things suck. My favorite baseball player is Grady Sizemore. I like to think I have a pretty good card collection of him. Plenty of commons, some rare cards, some auto's and a lot of game used stuff. However, every time I head over to Ebay to see what I might want to buy, I get disgusted when I see 10 different listings on the first page of "GAME USED SWATCH UD SPECTRUM, PURPLE RAINBOW STORM REFRACTOR /75". That card is selling for 5 bucks. Cool, I'll pick that up. But wait, I'm not done yet as I've still have to purchase the /10, /55, /35, /105, and the ever so rare /555.
Seriously Topps and UD, stop doing this shit. I know quite a few blogs out there that I frequent (most notably Sportscards Uncensored) talks about this daily and I love reading about it.
However, when browsing today, I have seen it all. The 2008 UD Grady Sizemore Jersey out of their base set is not serial numbered which makes it not as rare. So how would the seller make this card seem enticing?
Yep, just plop a pair of pushed up tits with the card in the middle of the two. Genius. Whatever dude buys that card will be in heaven. Probably gloat to his buddies "d00d i just won a jerzey card of an all-star for 10 bucks and it was on some tits!"
Personally, I think this option of selling your cards is real tacky. Not to mention it screams white trash when you consider that in the lower left corner the woman's hand is pushing up her boob so the stupid card is "centered".
By the way, if you guys care enough to look at some of their other SUPER BOOB auctions, the persons name is sweet daisy20.
Have fun.
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